Town boss Paul Jewell admitted his side were “hopeless” during their 1-0 home victory over Portsmouth. However, the Blues manager was pleased that his team showed resilience and is starting to grab points when not playing well.

Jewell said: “I think anyone who saw the game here last year will remember that we murdered Portsmouth but lost 2-0. But tonight we were basically hopeless, weren’t we?

“I said to them at half-time that if you’re going to be successful in football, you’ve got to get something out of games when you don’t play well, and Portsmouth were the better team in all areas tonight, let’s have it right.

“But we kept working at it, had a little bit of luck and desire or whatever got us through. If you’re going to be a decent team, you’ve got to win games when you don’t play well.”

The Blues boss says his side haven’t always got what they deserved from games earlier this season: “We played really well at Middlesbrough and drew, really well at Cardiff and drew. Tonight we were second best and we won 1-0. That’s why this game drives you mad.

“As daft as it sounds, 0-0 would have been a good result for us tonight. They’re two bonus points for us because we weren’t very good.”

Jewell had praise for Pompey’s display: “I think sometimes you have to give the opposition credit. I thought Portsmouth played well. They’re big and strong, and they’re very dangerous from set plays.

“They caused us problems all over the pitch, although for all the corners and freekicks they had, Stocky’s only had two real saves to make.

“We started off OK in the first couple of minutes, but after that we looked a little bit edgy, it was like a performance from last year almost. We rode our luck and we’ve come through with the three points.

“Sometimes as a manager games like that are as satisfying as when you play well. If we play like that on Saturday we’ll get beaten, but at least it gives us confidence that when we’re not at our best, we can dig in, get some blocks in and win ugly. I’ve said before, we’re an ugly team, so we should be able to win ugly.”

Jewell confirmed central defender Ibrahima Sonko suffered a hamstring injury: "It was his left hamstring. It was serious enough for him to come off but I don't know how bad.

"We'll have to see how he is in the morning but I guess it'll be a struggle for Saturday."

Portsmouth caretaker-manager Guy Whittingham believed his team ought to have won comfortably: “I think that’s probably the best 90 minutes we’ve played all season.

"We knew it was going to be tough with Ipswich not having lost in five, having won three and drawn two, and playing well with goals all over the pitch.

“The lads knew what kind of game it was going to be, we had a game plan and it worked well — all apart from scoring goals.”

Photo: Action Images

BiGDonnie added 22:39 - Oct 18 I feel sorry for Portsmouth NOT
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itfc1981 added 22:40 - Oct 18 A win on Saturday and we go up to at least 4th due to Boro playing Derby, and Palace being above us. COYB!
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itfc1981 added 22:44 - Oct 18 strike that we go third as West Ham dont play until Monday. If Boro and Derby draw we go 2nd!
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Tillz9 added 22:48 - Oct 18 Great result as we did play very badly. Never got our passing going but still sneaked a 1-0 win.
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pazelle added 22:51 - Oct 18 It's better to be hopeless than hapless! Is it?
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martleshamitfc added 22:54 - Oct 18 the diamond system really didn't work tonight, no width and too many long balls to our "small" strikers, we needed to have some width. Much better when Ellington and Jet came on. A lucky three points but all good teams grind out results like this if they are to succeed, well done.
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bobble added 22:55 - Oct 18 this form is putting my tippin all over the place,when the dark lord was here it was easy 0-0 or a defeat now i don't know whether we will will 1-0 or 3-0
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broomfield123 added 23:10 - Oct 18 Who cares come the end of the season and we've gone up . Remember beating them 5 - 2 when we won the old 2nd div title to go into prem for the 1st time with stockwell gavin johnson dozzel and real football
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Frase1987 added 23:15 - Oct 18 That's why we should stop dissing players like JET etc... when you need something different you need them there.
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NastyPasty added 23:17 - Oct 18 End of the day.... 3 points yay COYB... Dropped 2 against Cardiff n probably gained 2 2nite.... Swings n roundabouts.... So that was a bad day for us n got 3 points... Bring on Palace n da bwoyss gettin their game goin again. Well done lads.. Keep up the good work :-)
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Mark added 23:19 - Oct 18 The performance will soon be forgotten, but the 3 points will stay with us all season. It is fantastic to see Ipswich in the play-off zone a decent way into the season, so lots of credit to Paul Jewell, his staff and players for making that happen. So it's 6th v 5th on Saturday at Portman Road, and with the bonus of a season ticket promotion (any season ticket holders who haven't sold your four £10 tickets please try to do so) it should be a decent crowd, who can hopefully witness a better performance and another win. Four straight home wins, when was the last time that happened?!

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RetroBlue added 23:20 - Oct 18 Pompey "had a game plan" , yes Whittingham, you did. Its called spoiling tactics, and it nearly worked. Did Pompey bring their own ref with them tonight? What a shower of shyte he was! But all good sides win , when they have off days. And Town won a good battle, tonight when we really weren't at the races. That's promotion winning in my book !
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TractorMan added 23:41 - Oct 18 Is Ingimarsson fit? Obvious replacement for Sonko?
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ipsfem added 23:43 - Oct 18 Well said Paul. We were crap, ref needs to go back to school, but 3 points is 3 points! I'll take that every week!
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Garv added 23:51 - Oct 18 First and foremost, worst referee I've watched in a long long while. Huge credit to Portsmouth tonight, they did what always stops us playing which is closing us down, not letting us get our passes of quickly. Reading did it last year, Watford also. They looked organised. Jimmy however did have an off night, looked very slow? I thought Bowyer and Leadbitter were absolute stars tonight, they battled and worked tirelessly and in my opinion showed up Norris to be the poor player he is, I barely noticed him. I think we kept the right one in Leadbitter. Credit I think has to go to Delaney who has been widely criticized before, and even tonight when he came on whenever he had the ball there was a nervous groan from the crowd. But he did his job and cleared everything that came near him. Ellington also impressed me (assist I think?), held the ball up well and got into good scoring positions at times and looked generally lively. JET less so but still put in a good shift (interesting to see the criticism he gets after playing badly and then pretty much nothing tonight). Cliche but signs of a good team when you win playing badly, nice to know we've always got a chance of knicking a goal with Andrews again getting into a good position and scoring. Much improved performance on Saturday please, I've got a feeling Jewell won't let the team play like that again. Very good chance to make more strides up the table on Saturday! COYB.

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sixtouchfootball added 00:02 - Oct 19 3points from a below average performance is what gets teams up! These are good signs. While i'm all for concistancy regarding team selection (same team for 6th game) i think this shows you need to pick a team based on who you play. A bit of width in this one would have stretched pompy a bit. That said....3 point....win ugly.....job done......hasnt happened much in the last few years! Up the town!!!!

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linhdi added 00:16 - Oct 19 We are our own harshest critics sometimes. Pompey came to spoil us, by playing a high energy game, close us down and get men behind the ball. It did shake us off our stride, but we didn't allow ourselves to be bullied. How often in the past we would not have won that kind of game. A corner has been turned. Stockdale did well with the very few saves he had to make, whilst we made a few chances and took one. Ellington looks a real handful, and it is really important we allow some of the squad players to have a go - they will all have a part to play this season. Welcome back Delaney too - a real pro at the London Branch meeting a few weeks ago, and no problem if he keeps his place for Palace.

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TractorBeezer added 02:08 - Oct 19 Well done lads for the three points. As others have stated it doesn't always come from pretty football so we'll take the points with gratititude. Let's stuff Palace!
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julesbda added 02:13 - Oct 19 What kind of reception did chuck get from the crowd ??
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Garv added 02:15 - Oct 19 Great work AGAIN from Edwards for the goal, and Ellington for the neat little knock down.
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arablue added 02:30 - Oct 19 Can't expect the team to put in 5 star shifts all the time...as long as the team is able to grind out a win (ugly it may be) when we are not hitting our highs, then thats OK by me.
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arablue added 02:31 - Oct 19 Well done to the team, and Andrews in particular. His goals vs leeds and now portsmouth worth 4 additional points... PJ, sign him up on permanent basis!
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scooterblue added 07:11 - Oct 19 makes up for last seaon .
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irishtim added 07:15 - Oct 19 well done lads 3pts the important thing bring on palace
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Back_The_Boss added 08:43 - Oct 19 Games like this were lost last year and lets hope we can grind out results more often. Eg. We lost 2-0 at home to Pompey last year yet we had far more chances to score.
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